Hans Kraay jr. has taken aim at the KNVB after learning that none of the 13 training sessions in the build-up to the coming interlands will be fully open to the public. He said he had planned to go and watch, but found that every session is either closed altogether or limited to just 15 minutes.
The timing matters because Xavi Hernández is making his debut as bondscoach, and Kraay said supporters deserve a chance to see how he works. “Xavi gaat debuteren als bondscoach en die moeten we alle steun geven die we kunnen geven,” he said, adding that nobody yet knows what kind of trainer he is. For him, the decision turned what could have been a public moment into something distant.
Kraay said the setup is all the harder to understand because there are 13 sessions in the coming weeks, enough opportunities to let people in. Instead, he said, “van die dertien trainingen is er gewoon niet één open,” before calling the choice “een enorme gemiste kans.”
He pointed to what supporters would actually see under the current rules: a warm-up, a rondo, and players passing the ball around while the bondscoach stands with his hands behind his back. That, he argued, is still better than nothing, but it is not the same as giving Oranje fans a real look at the new coach’s work. Children in orange shirts with their parents, he said, are being shut out of a full training session.
The KNVB has not opened any of the 13 sessions fully, and that leaves one basic question hanging over Xavi Hernández’s first weeks in charge: whether the federation sees public access as part of support for a new era, or as something it is prepared to keep tightly controlled. For now, the answer is in the schedule itself.
